The richest families in the world are gearing up for an economic recession by avoiding the bond and public equity markets, and focusing on private or alternative investments or cash, Bloomberg reports.

"It's a very hard time for family offices to allocate money," Rick Stone, a former partner at Cadwalader, Wickersham & Taft and the head of the Stone Family Office, told Bloomberg.

"There's more caution and fear of the public equity markets among ultra-high-net-worth investors," added Timothy O'Hara, the president of Rockefeller Global Family Office. "That has more people thinking about private investments, alternative investments, or cash."

According to the UBS Global Family Office Report, more than half of families worth an average of $1.2 billion or more think the U.S. will enter a recession within a year, and just under half are focusing on building their cash reserves and changing their investment strategies to avoid risk.

"Who knows what will happen with Brexit, what will happen in the EU, and what will happen between the U.S. and China," said one respondent, an unnamed CEO of an individual family office in Europe. "There are so many open questions, and this could have a dramatic impact on the market. In general, we think we have reached our peak."

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